After thinking I would get an early start on the way
home, the late arrivals from the night before ensured this was not going to
happen ! Even though most people had
surfaced by 11 am, they then decided they all probably had too much alcohol
still in their blood to drive,
so we should have a leisurely coffee and lunch
before heading out ! As Zed’s car was
still on my trailer and had to be delivered to Sydney, Zed and Dana were to
drive Elsie back to Sydney while I drove Troopie and towed the trailer with his
car on. Then, once we had dropped off
his car at the repair workshops, we could load my car on the trailer and I
could head off to Queensland.
After a very pleasant lunch was eventually finished and our farewell’s were said, we had an uneventful 3 hour drive into Sydney, dropped Zed’s car off, loaded mine on the trailer, and by about 5.30 pm I hit the road north. Kyle kindly offered me dinner, but I didn’t want to stay overnight and face Monday morning Sydney traffic, so I opted to head north straight away.
Worked well – Got out of Sydney easily on a Sunday evening, and got about 3 hours up the road (near Bulahdelah) before I got too tired and decided to pull over in a layby.
Slept like a log in the back of Troopie, then
woke up with the dawn at about 6 am, cooked myself eggs and tomato on toast and
a cup of tea, and headed north. It was
essentially a trouble free drive with few traffic problems, and after some 600
kms I pulled into the driveway at home at about 2.30 pm, and started unloading
everything.
Great week with some good friends, fantastic weather, and
both Troopie and Elsie behaved themselves.
The new seats in Troopie were great, the new carpet makes her much
quieter inside, and all the boxes for clothes and food that I had made (along
with various other modifications) all worked perfectly, so I reckon the inside
of Troopie is now just about finished.
Now to fit all the new suspension, and the solar panel and inverter etc,
and then get the rear tent made, and we are just about finished…………….. :-) Now I am starting to think about a final
shake down trip - Maybe around half of Australia in July or August (ie when it is
cooler) – Flinders Ranges, Ayers Rock (sorry, Uluru) and the Alice, north to
Darwin and Kakadu, then east through Mt Isa to Cairns and the Daintree before
dropping back down to the Gold Coast. By
then it will be almost time to ship the car to Seattle at the end of the year !!!! CAN’T WAIT !!
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